Monday, January 7, 2013

Murphy's survey of the recent economic literature on fiscal policy (HT EconLog's Henderson) is obligatory reading in the midst of the current economic cacophony and dogmatic drivel:

Contrary to the claims of some of today's proponents of both deficit
spending and increases in the highest income tax rates, there is a large
literature on the historical success of supply-side economics and
fiscal austerity based on cuts in government spending. Although the
findings of the relevant research are not unanimous, the case for
Keynesian pump-priming is not as solid as some of the Keynesians claim.
Indeed, in the cases of Paul Krugman and Christina Romer, their own past
academic work shows why.

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Free Trade

"I want not so much free trade as the spirit of free trade for my country. Free trade means a little more wealth; the spirit of free trade is a reform of the mind itself, that is to say, the source of all reforms."
Frédéric Bastiat

Freedom

"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest."John Stuart Mill